District nears snow-days limit

City reminds residents about winter emergency plans

The Gahanna-Jefferson Public School District has one more day for inclement weather before having to make up missed days at the end of the school year.

After canceling classes Jan. 6 and 7 for extreme cold temperatures, district public-information manager Mallory Sribanditmongkol said, the district had used four of five state-allotted calamity days. Any calamity days beyond five must be made up at the end of the school year, she said.

The district's Community U event on social media also was rescheduled from Jan. 6 to Feb. 3.

"It will be a neat session on social media for both parents and students," Sribanditmongkol said.

Local residents who needed relief from the cold Jan. 6 and 7 were welcomed at the YMCA of Central Ohio, including the Gahanna branch.

The Y opened its doors as warming centers for anyone who lost power, experienced a water-main break or needed to come in from the cold.

The city of Gahanna also canceled parks and recreation programs as a result of low temperatures.

Whenever G-J schools close because of inclement weather, public-information manager Niel Jurist said, it's the policy of the parks-recreation department to cancel or reschedule programs.

As a reminder to residents in the event of snow, Jurist said, the city's streets are placed into one of four priorities as part of Gahanna's snow-removal policy.

The priorities are as follows:

* Arterial: Main streets that experience the most traffic volume and are essential to maintaining traffic flow through the city are treated first, such as North Hamilton Road, Stygler Road North and Granville Street.

* Collector: Streets that lead to arterial streets, such as Tresham Road, Lincolnshire Road, Flint Ridge Drive and Harrison Pond Drive, are treated.

* Residential: This includes neighborhood streets, such as Wickham Way, Knights Avenue and Iroquois Park Place.

* Courts: Cul-de-sacs, some of which lead to collector streets, are low priorities.

In a plowing event, arterial streets are plowed first. After all the arterial streets are cleared, plows work on the collector streets. Following collector streets are residential streets and then courts.